See Words: Student

There would be no point in reviewing just the See Words: Teacher app or just the See Words: Student app.  They are two sides of the same coin that together form the whole.  Combined, they support children and teachers by providing a supportive framework in which to learn and a record-keeping system that helps to monitor and asses progress.

The Student App

The set up of the children's app is likely to be done by the teacher.  This app needs to know to which teacher account it is linked. This is done quite straightforwardly by the use of a code obtained within the set-up process of the teacher app.

When children come to use this app they select their teacher, the group or class to which they belong, and then their name.  Each child's area is freely accessible without a password, which makes sense for an app for those who cannot read, but it does leave the risk of children using the account of another child and thereby polluting the data already recorded.  This is solvable by teachers taking care to support children as they log in.  

Teachers may wish to consider whether they want their email address to show alongside their identity in the children's app.  This can be disabled but the option to do so is not made clear during the set-up process and you have to go back into the settings to do this.

The tasks that children complete are varied in their type and in how they develop young learners' skills.  The features of the device are put to good use as children trace letter shapes on the screen, speak words or sounds into the microphone, drag and drop answers, and use the keyboard.  Each task is well suited to the method of input and they are varied enough to keep children interested.  Short but frequent sessions on the app are ideal and its activities are perfectly matched to this approach.

The tasks are intelligent as well and do not take the broad sweep approach to accuracy of some competing apps.  For example, when asked to find letters that make a short 'i' sound, the letter in the word 'little' is accepted but not in the word 'size'.  This distinction is important but creating it makes the developers' job much harder than it would be to just mark a single letter as being correct in all cases.

This care and attention to detail in regards to ensuring the educational integrity of the app is visible throughout. There is a consistency to the app's interactions that means that children who still struggle with reading can learn what they have to do in each situation.  Many of the tasks are accompanied by a recorded human voice that explains the tasks and sets the challenge.  In a few places, the voice used is synthesised and this can be a little less clear although that, perhaps, depends on the accents that the user is most familiar with hearing.

There is no requirement for children to remember to save or synchronize their work.  This is done automatically by the app when connected to Wi-Fi although another process is available for when there is no connection but which is a little more involved.

The Teacher App

There are two main uses for the teacher's app.  Firstly, there is the set up of the See Words: School program which involves adding the users and defining the lesson plans.   There are no bulk import tools for class lists but inputting teachers and students is easy and quick.  

The app comes prepopulated with lesson plans that are compliant with the US Common Core curriculum and informed by Orton-Gillingham phonics.  Should your school follow a different curriculum but one based on similar principles, you can easily tweak each lesson to match your preferences.  The introduction of different concepts and the progression through them are likely to be familiar to most teachers of reading so there will probably be only minimal adjustments needed.

The second purpose of the teacher's app is to assess and monitor the students as they work through the exercises.  Data from each student's sessions are fed back to the teacher app.  There, you can examine what has been done as well as useful metrics such as time taken, number of attempts, and anything else relevant to the particular exercise.

A feature built into this app that is not one often seen is an alternative to synchronising the accounts through Wi-Fi.  Any teacher who has used technology in the classroom will know the frustration and problems that can occur when everything does not work well.

Should you find that you are working with your group in a part of the school where there is a weak or non-existent Wi-Fi connection, you can do a manual synchronisation using BlueTooth directly between devices.  It isn't quite as convenient as the cloud/automatic synchronisation but it is a great back up to ensure your lesson goes to plan. 

The teacher app does exactly what you would expect and does so in a clear and organised manner.  You get useful feedback and are left free from marking and recording, leaving you to spend your time directly supporting children.

The Package

Both of these apps come together to form an effective and user-friendly method by which to support young learners as they develop their reading skills.  There is a broad range of subscription options that ensure each school can choose the one that best suits it.  

Introducing the See Words: School programme to a school is supported through an informative website and some useful videos that explain the setting up of the apps and how they are used.  For any teacher considering this app for their school, you can get a good idea of how this package works by watching these short but informative videos.

There are quite a few apps that aim to develop some aspect of learning to read but few that are as comprehensive or useful as See Words: School. 

You can download See Words: Student on your iOS devices from the Apple App Store.